Community Rules

1. Please do not post spam
2. No referral, affiliate and/or survey links.
3. Submit only the original source of the content. No general URL shorteners
4. No racist, sexist, homophobic content, or threats regardless of popularity or relevance.

Channels

Albert Finney

Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor who worked in film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television. He is known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also 1960), Tom Jones (1963), Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), and the James Bond film Skyfall (2012).

Albert Finney (9 May 1936– 7 February 2019) was an English actor who worked in film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.

In February 1956 John Fernald, principal of RADA, gave Finney his first major role in the Vanbrugh Theatre's student production of Ian Dallas' play The Face of Love, as Shakespeare's Troilus.[5] Finney graduated from RADA and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Finney was offered a contract by the Rank Organisation but turned it down to perform for the Birmingham Rep.[6] He was in a production of The Miser for Birmingham Rep, which was filmed for the BBC in 1956. Also for the BBC he appeared in The Claverdon Road Job (1957) and View Friendship and Marriage (1958).

Film stardom

Finney made his breakthrough in the same year with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), produced by Richardson. The film was a box-office success, being the third most popular film in Britain that year. It earned over half a million pounds in profit.[9]

Finney then did Billy Liar (1960) on stage and for British television.[10]

Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of Lawrence of Arabia after a successful, and elaborate, screen-test that took four days to shoot. However, Finney baulked at signing a multi-year contract for producer Sam Spiegel and chose not to accept the role.[11]

Finney created the title role in Luther, the 1961 play by John Osborne depicting the life of Martin Luther, one of the foremost instigators of the Protestant Reformation. He performed the role with the English Stage Company in London, Nottingham, Paris and New York.[12] The original West End run at the Phoenix ended in March 1962, after 239 performances there, when Finney had to leave the cast to fulfill a contractual obligation with a film company.[13]

Tom Jones

Finney starred in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film Tom Jones, directed by Richardson and written by Osborne. The success of Tom Jones saw British exhibitors vote Finney the ninth most popular star at the box office in 1963.[14]

Finney followed this with a small part in The Victors (1963). He then made his Broadway debut in Luther in 1963. When that run ended he decided to take a year off and sail around the world.

The success of Tom Jones enabled Finney to turn producer on his next film, which he also starred in: Night Must Fall (1964). It was directed by Reisz.

"People told me to cash in on my success while I was hot," he later said. "I'd been acting for about eight years and had only had one vacation... Captain Cook had been a hero of mine when I was a kid, and I thought it would be exciting to go to some of the places in the Pacific where he'd been."[6]

1963-1974

Finney undertook a season of plays at the National Theatre.[when?][15]

Memorial then made Charlie Bubbles (1968), which Finney starred in and also directed. Liza Minnelli made her feature debut in the movie.[17] Finney later called it "the most intense sense of creation I've ever had."[6]

In 1972 Finney returned to the stage after a six year absence with Alpha Beta, which he later filmed for TV with Rachel Roberts.[15]

Memorial Productions pulled out of producing and Finney focused on acting. "It was OK at first," he later said, "but in the end it was sitting in an office, pitching ideas to Hollywood and waiting for the phone to ring."[18]

Murder on the Orient Express

Finney played Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the film Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The movie was a big hit Finney became so well known for the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years. "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent", he said.[19][20]

He announced he intended to direct a film, The Girl in Melanie Klein, for Memorial, but it was not made.[21]

Finney decided to take time off from features and focus on stage acting, doing the classics at the National Theatre in London. "I felt that it needed commitment," he later said. "When you're making movies all the time, you stop breathing. You literally don't breathe in the same way that you do when you're playing the classics. When you have to deliver those long, complex speeches on stage, you can't heave your shoulders after every sentence. The set of muscles required for that kind of acting need to be trained. I really wanted to try and do justice to my own potential in the parts. I didn't want to be a movie actor just dropping in, doing Hamlet and taking off again. I wanted to feel part of the company."[6]

Finney was at the National for over three years, playing Hamlet, Macbeth, Tamerlane, and Chekhov, among others.[6]

Return to films

Finney had not played a lead role in a feature film in six years, and started to think about returning to cinema. The last two successful films he had made were Scrooge and Orient Express in which he was heavily disguised. "Most Americans probably think I weigh 300 pounds, have black hair and talk with a French accent like Hercule Poirot," said Finney. "So I thought they should have a look at me while I was still almost a juvenile and kind of cute."[6]

Finney decided to make six films in succession "so that I could relax and get back into it again. In order to feel really assured and comfortable in front of a camera, you've got to do it for a while."[6]

He received excellent reviews for his performance in the drama Shoot the Moon (1982).[24] Finney said the role "required personal acting; I had to dig into myself. When you have to expose yourself and use your own vulnerability, you can get a little near the edge."[6]

Less well received was his performance as Daddy Warbucks in the Hollywood film version of Annie (1982), which was directed by John Huston. Finney said going into this film after Shoot the Moon was "marvelous. I use a completely different side of myself as Warbucks. 'Annie' is show biz; it's open, simple and direct. It needs bold, primary colors. I don't have to reveal the inner workings of the character, and that's a relief."[6]

Finney went into The Dresser (1983), directed by Peter Yates, which earned him a Best Actor Oscar Nomination. He then played the title role in the TV movie Pope John Paul II (1984), his American TV debut.[citation needed]

Huston cast Finney in the lead role of Under the Volcano (1984), which earned both men great acclaim, including another Oscar nomination for Finney.[25]

1990s

Finney began the 1990s with the lead role in a film for HBO, The Image (1990). He received great acclaim playing the gangster boss in Miller's Crossing (1990), replacing Trey Wilson shortly before filming.

He also played the title role in the television series My Uncle Silas, based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show ran for two series broadcast in 2001 and 2003.[35]

Even with his success on the big screen, Finney never abandoned his stage performances. He continued his association with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London, where he performed in the mid-1960s in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.

A lifelong supporter of Manchester United, Finney narrated the documentary Munich, about the air crash that killed most of the Busby Babes in 1958, which was shown on United's TV channel MUTV in February 2008.[39]

Personal life

With his first wife, Jane Wenham, he had a son,[25] who works in the film industry as a camera operator.[40] From 1970 to 1978, he was married to French actress Anouk Aimée. From 2006 until his death, Finney was married to travel agent Penelope Delmage.[40][25] In May 2011, Finney disclosed that he had been receiving treatment for kidney cancer.[41] According to a 2012 interview he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007 and underwent surgery, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy.[42]

Finney won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for Erin Brockovich, and as a member of the acting ensemble in the film Traffic. He was also nominated for The Gathering Storm, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, but did not win.[56][57]